


The last good thing about this part of town

by orphan_account



Category: South Park
Genre: Brief Abuse Mention, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 07:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8569459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After an argument with Butters, Kenny realizes he's in love.





	

Butters is laughing, eyes bright and filling with tears. I'm smiling too, blissful. We're holding hands. Something is on the tip of my tongue, something that will surely make us both smile more if only I can get it out- 

 

I wake to the sound of muffled sobbing. I regret the loss of sleep, but open my eyes to examine the situation. Beams of sun shine through the window nearest my bed and warm my sheets. The boy with whom I spent the night is sitting up, and tears are streaming down his face. This occurrence is not completely uncommon, but I feel my chest tighten nonetheless. 

"Butters?" I ask, voice hoarse and laced with lack of sleep. He startles, and I make note of the way his hands tremble. He lets out a breath and bites his bottom lip with force upon the realization that I am awake. 

"Hey, Ken," he says quietly, seeming resigned. My eyebrows furrow, seeing the change in his typically friendly demeanor. I sit up in bed and try to ignore the way my eyes struggle to remain open. 

"What's wrong, sunshine?" I ask, making my way to Butters' side of the bed. Hearing the familiar pet name seemed only to fuel his misery further, and his shoulders begin to shake again with heavy sobs. 

"Oh! Hey, everything is going to be alright," I say frantically, grabbing Butters' hand. He snatches his hand back, clutching it in a fist and resting it on his heart. Despite his hysteria, I can't help feeling vaguely offended. 

"Kenny, you don't understand! If you knew why I was crying, I don't think you could forgive me," he says sadly, and with as much sincerity as ever. 

I had the distinct feeling that this was not the case. Years of being beaten down, manipulated, and guilt tripped by his parents had left Butters with a constant guilt, and a crushing fear of letting people down. "Leo, if you could forgive me for permanent vision impairment, I can forgive you for this." 

Butters smiles wistfully at the reminder of our always eventful childhood, and pawed absently at the scar running across his left eye. "Kenny, I need to tell you something," he says solemnly. 

I look up expectantly, and wait for him to continue. 

"I'm....leaving South Park." He cringes, as though expecting me to hit him. I feel like I'm going to throw up. 

Butters is not my boyfriend. We screw around because there's nothing else to do in this godforsaken hick town, and because we're the only two out of the kids we hung out with who never got the hell out of here. Tweek and Craig skipped town and eloped immediately following graduation. Token's family moved to a bigger town during sophomore year, and we haven't heard from him since. Clyde knocked a chick up during his first semester of college and they're still trying to make it work. Jimmy's an up and coming journalist somewhere in Denver. Eric Cartman disappeared without a trace, and rumor is he's wormed his way into politics. Stan's mental health spiraled out of control and he periodically collapses, drunk and whimpering, outside of Kyle's Stanford dorm. 

Butters is not my boyfriend, but he's just about the only person I have left in South Park, or anywhere. 

"I'm sorry, Ken," he says, voice hushed and weak. Seeing him there , so scared, I feel instantly guilty for the hell my friends and I put him through over the course of our rocky friendship. I wanted to take back everything we'd done that made him feel that he had to be so afraid of me. 

"Hey, no. No one ever said you were obligated to be stuck here with me forever," I reassure him. "Where do you plan on going?"  
His cheeks redden and he focused his line of vision on the mattress below us. 

"Well, uh...Eric called and-", he stops when he hears me swear under my breath. Fucking Cartman. The way Butters referred to him by his first name even after years of torment was so genuine it made my gut twist. 

"I know, Kenny. Listen, I know how he can be, but he and I are awful close! And..he says he wants my help with his new job. I'll be getting paid, Ken!" 

I roll my eyes, getting off the bed to stand in front of him, looking down at the way he's hunched over pitifully. 

"You're so fucking naive, you know that? He's using you. He's always fucking using you. Don't you remember all the sick things he did to you growing up? God, Butters are you ever gonna learn that he can't be fucking trusted?" 

Butters stares me down with a coldness unique to anything I've ever seen on his face before. 

"Yeah, Kenny, I remember. I remember the things Eric did and I remember you and your friends never doing anything to stop it. I know what he is. I know what he's capable of," his voice breaks, "I also know that I can't stay here anymore. This town is hell, Kenny. No one here cares about anyone but themselves. And now Kyle Broflovski isn't even here to explain to us all why that's fucked up." 

I start to say something, that I'd stopped letting Cartman get away with his shit in the fifth grade, but can't argue in good conscious. He's right. The things he'd gone through in this place are inexcusable. Butters begins putting his shirt on and rolls his eyes in a harsh and uncharacteristic fashion. 

"Yeah, that's what I thought," he snaps, making a move to get off the bed and presumably out of my shitty apartment. 

"Baby, I-," I start but he's gone, leaving all of his belongings behind. I'm startled by the bile rising in my throat as I hear the door slam.

I suddenly feel panicked, and desperate to run after him, but with this comes the distinct fear of rejection. I'm overcome with the feeling that if he so much as tells me to fuck off, I will keel over and die on the spot. My head aches as confusion pounds through its walls. 

I can hear his footsteps on the stairs. 

I'm reminded suddenly of the first time we kissed. It was junior year, my bedroom. Some sad song about lost love was playing and we were drowning out the lyrics with sharp laughter, trying to pretend they didn't scare us a little. I leaned into him gently, and we never looked back. Then again, I'd fucked Bebe Stevens the next month in the back of my dad's pick up truck. 

As my head swims with fragments of memory, I hear a car pull away and get a sudden urge to scream. 

The more I think about Butters' departure, the more my head aches. Something about this ache, and the one in my chest, feels oddly reminiscent of the day Kyle lost his virginity. The spring of our senior year. It was late on a Saturday afternoon when Kyle had informed Stan and I via group message that he'd slept with a chick from his youth group. I'd responded with a series of suggestive emoticons, and Stan had said nothing at all. 

Later that evening Stan had shown up at my house, eyes rimmed red and breath stinking of the cheap beer that ruined his parents' marriage. He was practically incoherent, but one thing was clear: Without Kyle, Stan came apart at the seams. 

That night I'd felt such pity for Stan, who'd sources of happiness had never expanded much farther than his best friend's sarcastic quips and massive vocabulary.   
I'd also promised myself never to become so reliant on one person. The vulnerability I saw in Stan's eyes that day terrified me. He looked helpless. 

What scared me even more was the feeling in my stomach the moment Butters told me he was leaving. 

 

I know suddenly that I have to find him. I hurriedly pull on a battered tee shirt and run outside, contemplating the similarities between me and Stan Marsh. 

•••

I run down the steps of my complex in a way that could only be described as frantic. As I race through the streets of South Park like a maniac, I'm grateful that the residents of my town are too familiar with the antics of those living here to spare more than a passing glance. I pass Big Gay Al walking his papillon, and he smiles amiably. 

After a few minutes of running, I reach my destination: Tweak Bros Coffee Shop. Over the years, Butters has continually mistaken Richard Tweak's overwhelming, and frankly insincere politeness for genuine love and concern, and had therefore come to spend many an afternoon here. This had always rubbed me the wrong way, as I resented the Tweak family, perhaps unfairly, for providing my parents with meth for the last 15 years. 

The ding of the bell as I enter the shop alerts Butters to my presence. He looks up, startled, and glances around as though searching for an exit. I feel frightened by this, because it means maybe he won't listen to what I have to say. I've died a thousand deaths, and this little blonde twink is making me nervous. 

"Please stay." I blurt this out suddenly, surprising both of us. He doesn't respond, so I continue. 

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. After you left I started thinking about the way Stan used to look at Kyle and about the time when we were fucking and I started to cry because I was worried about my little sister and you didn't make fun of me for even a second and-" I stop when I notice that he's smiling. 

"And also, I think maybe I'm in love with you? I only yelled because I don't want you to be hurt by him again. I let him do it for years when I shouldn't have and I won't let it happen again." 

His smile turns into a grin, and I look at him hopefully. 

"Kenny," he began, "I've had a crush on you since the seventh grade winter formal when you called Red a bitch because she laughed when I asked her to dance. I'm glad that we're the only fellas left here in town, and I'd sure as heck love to go anywhere with you." 

I feel my stomach cease it's turning, then swiftly fill with butterflies once more as he leans into kiss me softly. I look behind him to see Mr Tweak sporting an over enthusiastic thumbs up, and I roll my eyes. 

Butters kisses me again, however, and I forget that any other two people have ever walked this Earth. 

We might not know exactly what's going to happen next, but I can guarantee we won't be South Park's biggest deadbeats for much longer.


End file.
